ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,319,556, issued on June 3, was assigned to Starbucks Corp. (Seattle).
"Automated dispensing system for customized beverages" was invented by Natarajan Venkatakrishnan (Bellevue, Wash.), Andrew Corlett (Issaquah, Wash.), Jonathan Levey (Kirkland, Wash.) and Brandon Michael Roberts (Snohomish, Wash.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The disclosure generally relates to an automated modular dispensing platform for creating customized beverages (e.g., using various sauces, syrups, sweeteners, colors and/or flavors added to a base beverage). The automated dispensing platform may simultaneously aggregate beverage modifiers or ingredients (e.g., swe...